What Is Prophetic? - Part 2 — Art Katz

Comparative safety and security, all of these factors impinge upon the prophetic man. The Lord uses the hour, the circumstance, the condition of the world, his recent experience, things that have been quickened in the Word, all come together at a certain moment as a constellation of thoughts that he has to somehow bring forth, trusting the Lord in the moment, as we're doing even now with various materials, to in the moment be present, to create and to send it forth.

The Precariousness of Prophetic Obedience

What I'm describing of true prophetic obedience is absolutely precarious, and no assurance that God is going to be there in that moment to assemble and put that together in a credible way. What if he's not there, where you could say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Don't you know that this conference is critical? Why am I left with my face sticking out and I'm staggering and choking and spluttering and making a mess of it? You have to run that risk also. God is not at your convenience to be invoked to guarantee the success of your message.

You have to run the risk of failure, and of abysmal failure, and of humiliating failure, or you cannot be the bearer of the now Word. For the prophet himself, the anomaly is that he has to be reticent and diffident.

That's a precious word you need to look up in the dictionary, where he knows that he's always, the prospect of error is always with him. No man is that, what's the word? Confident. It's a word. Inviolate.

Infallible. Infallible, that's the word. No man is infallible. He knows that because of any, who is more human than a prophet? Who is more conscious of his humanity than a prophet? And who is the God that is continually reminding the prophet of his humanity?

Son of man, can these bones live? Showing that even your prophetic faith is not sufficient for you to believe the thing I'm going to ask you to command. So, the anomaly is you're conscious of your humanity, and yet you're required to speak with authority, as of thus saith the Lord.

What a remarkable coming together of the most disparate contradictions that could ever be required of a flesh and blood man. It's painful, it's excruciating, it's a death. I will raise up unto you, not just once, but every time of prophetical obedience is another raising up out of a death that bears this remarkable anomaly of contradiction.

Of being required to speak with authority, as of thus saith the Lord, and to tell him, I'm not giving you an opinion, I'm speaking out of a prophetic authority, or else it's not worth hearing. And yet at the same time knowing that you're not infallible.

A Prophet's Authority Amid Human Weakness

As a matter of fact, on that final message, listen to all of the things that took place. A young girl had an epileptic seizure sitting in the front row, who had been brought to every meeting in a wheelchair, and such panic struck the audience, and the parents were running out to get this and that, and a circle of people praying around her, and that delayed the whole final service, which had to be concluded by 1230, because that day was a Canadian national holiday, and the workers would be paid overtime, a double time, if they stayed beyond 1230, so the clock is running out, I have not yet begun to speak, the brother who has preceded me has taken almost two hours to rehearse all of his favorite statements, which are true in themselves, and then this girl is having a fit, and everybody's coming around her, and she finally recovers.

And then a man is invited up, who is the son-in-law of one of the leaders, to confess his sin. He had fallen into sin, and had hurt his family, but now he's a repentant sinner, and wants opportunity to speak from the platform, to convey that to the congregation.

Okay, he does so. Then the family is invited up to embrace him, to receive the sinner back. Meanwhile the clock is ticking away, and they're bidding me to come up on a platform, while that family is still on there.

I finally come up, the family leaves, the girl has had the fit, and then there's a woman beginning to wail, sitting alongside that woman, wailing supposedly in the spirit, for the condition of that girl.

Well you're not going to interfere with that, holy ghost travail, if in fact it is holy ghost travail, and not just the flesh having a heyday. And right behind the girl, there's a man saying very loudly, we can't go on with anything, until this is taken care of.

The girl has been in that condition for 20 years. We can't go on, and I'm standing by the microphone. What would you do in a moment like that? Where the concluding message, which is the key, to the whole thing that has preceded it, is waiting its expression, and everything militates against that speaking.

I've never seen so many things, raised up in that moment, to contend against the word, as took place in that moment. Well what did you do Katz? I got up to the microphone, and I prayed. Something like, Lord, if you are Lord, and you have something to convey, that must not be in any way, thwarted or threatened or dismissed, I ask you to prevail now, over every disconcerting and distracting thing, that has taken place at this moment.

Still every strident voice, that yours might be heard, I ask it in Jesus name. Well, it's one thing to try and reconstruct the prayer, but that was the sense of it, and everything was brought into an immediate hush.

The woman stopped wailing, the man stopped crying, that we need to deal with this right now, and I was able to open my mouth and to speak. So it required, even an expression of authority, to take charge over, every discordant element threatening the word of God, which only a prophet, would have jealousy to insist upon.

If he's phony, he may have deferred, and said well, this has come up, and let's now join, this sister in her prevail for this girl, and let's end these days, by seeing a restoration, I don't know how or what, but the jealousy for the word, has got to prevail over every other consideration, and that is a component, in the prophet that God would raise up, like unto Moses.

The Prophetic Word Placed in the Prophet's Mouth

For I will put my words in his mouth. How did he do that? I can't tell you. I woke up with it, I went to bed with it, I was musing and reflecting on it, I was turning to something here and there, and Genesis 9, Noah's blessing upon the two sons, and the curse of Ham, Canaan as a matter of fact, and something was just, what's the word?

Gestating? Gestating. There was a process of birth, which you don't know until it comes out, and then the moment comes, when you have to open your mouth and believe, for that birthing. It's awkward. Who would ever want to be a prophet?

Who would ever want to bear this? Not just once, but every time and always. It's the most ungainly, it's so contrary, to everything that the flesh desires, in security, in knowledge, that this is what to say, this is how I'll say it, this is when, everything is completely the opposite.

So, and yet if such men are not formed, and come into the church, how shall the church cry out, I've been ripped off? How shall the church come to a moment of awareness? Because the moment of truth has come, by one whom God has sent, and bears the words, that he has put in his mouth.

We're not talking about a light thing, we're talking about people who would otherwise, go through a whole life, of missed Christian living, playing the game, and thinking that it represents the authentic thing, until authenticity itself has come, in the point of time, when it has been sent of God.

I'll put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them, all that I shall command him. Don't, don't modify it, don't soften it, don't make it more acceptable, by altering it, the words that I have given, he shall speak them, as I have commended him.

And you have to look into the faces, of those that are either furious with you, or refuse to look up at you. Maybe it's not a coincidental thing, that the same man who struck me with his Bible, and cried out against my Jewish flesh and pride, never once looked at me while I was speaking, for three speaking occasions.

What is there about me that, is that despicable? I know I'm not Cary Grant, but, there's a statement, in the inability to look up at the man. The same man that could not look up at me, was the same man that was able to strike me.

I'm not saying any of this for self-pity, nor in any way to demean the man, he's absolutely precious. I prayed afterwards, Lord I'm not worthy to untie his shoelaces. He's a senior in the faith, I wasn't even known to you, while he was yet laboring in your service.

I'm not worthy to untie his shoelaces. But what the drama that has unfolded, is pregnant, with remarkable significance and meaning, that we who are jealous, over these great foundational ministries, need to be able to critique and understand, not so as to condemn, but as to learn, what we will face in the last days, when our greatest collision, is likely not to be in the world, but in the church.

Speaking God's Words Without Softening Them

So can you be commanded, put his words in your mouth, words that you yourself would not have chosen, and words that embarrass you, that you would rather not speak, left to yourself you would have found, something else much more agreeable to proclaim.

But will you speak his words, all of his words, that he has commanded you, knowing that it's a formula for disaster. It has got to precipitate, such a reaction against you. So we can pray, as we come to the close of our session, that the Lord will continue to raise up, from the midst of the brethren, not from some place, where they've had no association with brethren at all, but from the midst of the brethren, out of the church, out of the body, one like unto myself, Moses, the man of God, and put his words in his mouth, and he shall speak all, that God shall command him.

The Church as a Prophetic Presence

Lord, we make that a prayer. We don't have your jealousy for the church, but we ask it, because if the church will not be that, my God, what shall be hoped for in the world? If the church is flaky, if the church is flirting, my God, with false gods, that are more deadly and dangerous, because they bear your name, what shall be hoped for in a world, that is full of deceit, and gamesmanship?

So we ask, my God, that this paradigm, this note that you have struck, from the beginning, that's your answer to the necromancers, and the diviners, and the occult, and the false prophets, will be raised up in our day.

And that in fact, in this very room, are those called to that very calling. And that what you are speaking, my God, is not only a word of instruction, but a word of event for them. Something is going into their spirits, beyond even their mind and their thought, that will be a factor in their, being raised up unto them.

So we bless you, Lord. And those who have not that calling personally, have it collectively, as the church, called to be a prophetic presence in the earth. And the same constituent elements that make for the man, make for the church.

So we have all a call. And the precious women and others in here, who are intercessors, need to groan and travail for the bringing forth of this authenticity, or else there will be people who will never cry out, I've been ripped off.

There'll be no awareness that they have been ripped off. They will continue to languish, and to feel, something is amiss, but I can't identify it. Everybody else seems to applaud it. Everybody else is saying, Amen and Hallelujah, and having a ball.

Why is it that I myself, from so wretched inside, I'm crying out for something I can't even define. Lord, bless those even now, in your church, who are in that condition, to whom the word of the Lord, a sent word through a sent one, has never come.

And bring the two together, that the despairing souls, the languishing, those that are dying, in their daily dying in the church, will receive and hear a word, that calls them to life. Come my God, and turn what this is about today, and in these days, to the everlasting good.

Suffering for the Church and Awaiting the Sent Word

We thank you Lord. Have mercy on those, that have suffered for the want, of the prophetic spokesman. Have suffered for the false, blitz of men who have come, proclaiming to be, what they in fact are not.

And that the poor soul, is not able to read her own heart. But she's dismayed and distressed. And she can't rise to the occasion, and celebrate the false thing, as everyone else. Bless that one Lord, and comfort her.

She's suffering for the church's sake. She's filling up, what remains in the body, of the sufferings of Christ. And that you'll honor my God, that anguish of soul, and bring answer. By sending the word, of all that you shall command, the sent one to speak.

The Cross as the Cost of Prophetic Obedience

We bless you my God, for your great provision. We welcome the calling ourselves. Fit us for it my God we pray. Separate us from ourselves, our need to be acknowledged, our need to be admired, our need to be respected, our need to be applauded.

That is all the same to us. Whether we receive a hug, and a statement of great gratitude, for our obedience. Or we are accused, and rejected for the very same word. Thank you my God. It's the issue of the cross.

And we welcome it's working. For only one who is raised up, from those deaths, can be obedient, in the moment my God, of that call. Thank you Lord. Precious God, may we hear you this day, and grant our willingness, to be formed, at your hand in Jesus name.

Amen. Just continue to add your prayer. Even take up any aspect, of what I prayed, and express it yourself. For the church, for the calling, for the hour, for Jews who have, who are still waiting, for the apostolic word.

Apostolic Preaching and Faith Through Hearing

Because how shall they call upon him, of whom they have never, ever rightly heard. Except one be sent, and one preach. Faith comes by the hearing, of that word. The capacity to believe, is not an intellectual process, it's a supernatural process.

When a word of apostolic splendor, and weight comes, it creates the faith, to believe, what was heretofore, rejected, or not rightly considered. The word is true Lord, if we had known Moses, and the prophets, we would know you.

And our default, and our inadequacy, in knowing you, goes back to that failure. That's right. And so I'm praying for the church, to do its homework, and to make up for the omission, and the neglect, of so great a source, as the Hebrew scriptures are.

That we might know Moses, and the prophets, that we might know you. For you are the embodiments, the personification, the ultimate expression, of what they themselves represented. Thank you Lord, that that was quickened to us, this morning.

We take it to heart, in Jesus name.